Yep, he was a Warrant Officer First Class - highest non-commissioned rank in the army. He was a short man - just a bit over 5ft 3in - and giants trembled at his approach. This included all commissioned ranks up to about Major as well as the other ranks ... and everyone over Major listened to what he had to say very carefully.

Now THAT is power. I've always aspired to it but never managed to come anywhere near achieving it.

lastday, chimera is also a term from genetics meaning "an organism consisting of two or more tissues of different genetic composition, produced as a result of mutation, grafting, or the mixture of cell populations from different zygotes." (definition swiped from dictionary.com)

The American Heritage Dictionary summarizes the weekday homage to Germanic gods thusly:

The names of the days of our week are based on the ancient astrological notion that the seven celestial bodies (sun, moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, Saturn) revolving around the stationary Earth influenced events on Earth and that each the bodies controlled the first hour of the day named after it. The system was brought into Hellenistic (hi of Troy!) Egypt from Mesopotamia. In 321 AD, Constantine the Great grafted the system onto the Roman calendar and declared the sequence: Dies Solis, Dies Lunae, Dies Martis, Dies Mercurii, Dies Iovis, Dies Veneris, and Dies Saturni. The Roman system was adopted throughout western Europe, and in the Germanic languages, including Old English, four of the Roman gods were converted into the corresponding Germanic gods. So: Sunnandaeg, Monandaeg, Tiwesdaeg (the god Tiu, like Mars, was a god of war), Wodensdaeg (the god Woden, like Mercury, was quick and eloquent), Thunresdaeg (the god Thunor (OE) or Thor (ON), like Jupiter, was lord of the sky), Frigedaeg (the goddess Frigg, like Venus, was the goddess of love), and Saeternesdaeg.

The same source lists "Tiu" as the Germanic god of war and the sky, and says its source is "OE Tiw. See deiw-" The Indo-European roots index entry for "deiw-" tells us that diew means to shine, and in many derivatives, sky, heaven, god. It also says that "Tiwes" is the genitive of "Tiu." [finally, the answer!]

Important derivatives of "deiw" include Tuesday, deity, divine, jovial, July, Jupiter, Zeus, dial, diary, dismal, journey and psychedelic. (Ha! I didn't expect to tie all those terms together today. Thanks, Max, for getting me started on this. )

Disclaimer: Wordsmith.org is not responsible for views expressed on this site.
Use of this forum is at your own risk and liability - you agree to
hold Wordsmith.org and its associates harmless as a condition of using it.